By Matan Naamani
This week’s parsha, Parshat Balak tells the story of Balak, the son of Zippor who, after seeing what the Israelites did to the Amorites, becomes terrified and disgusted by the children of Israel. Balak sends messengers to Balaam, son of Beor and Balaam asks for God’s blessing in waging war against the Israelites before they “eat up everything around us, as the ox eats up the greens of the field.” However God forbids this saying, “You shall not curse the people because they are blessed.”
Before I begin to analyze this I need to be honest about two things: first, I don’t know much about this story and do not consider myself very informed. And second, I have major problems with this parsha and find these problems to be maybe more instructive than the parsha itself.
We in HDNA believe in shivyon erech ha’adam, or the equality of human value- ie, that one nation is not entitled to wage war and pillage while others must passively watch because the former is “blessed.” We do however flock towards biblical stories and symbols like the ger (or stranger)- which embodies a lesson of humility, equality, and empathy. But the truth is that universalist morals like that of the ger and exceptionalist morals like that of Balak exist side-by-side in the Torah. Jewish learning is about 2 things- debate and action (or praxis, if you will). As Hillel the elder wrote, “If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself,f what am I? If not now, when?” The first two questions exist in a contradicting and dialectical relationship, each relying on the other to provide a needed challenge. The last question, to me, is an underlying challenge and reminder to act on what you learn. However, tension and debate are in many ways the cornerstones of Jewish learning.
This leads to two important questions about our work in HDNA:
The first is- does the fact that we can be selective in the lessons we choose from Jewish texts limit our Jewish education? Jewish education is about argument no matter how mundane (look at the Pesach haggadah for examples) and we in Habonim Dror love debate, discussion, and argument. To be Jewish educators may mean that we are responsible for all of the history in the Tanach.
Second, we are not only responsible for all of the history- as a movement in the Zionist tradition we recognize (at least in our language) that we are responsible also for everyone who considers themselves an inheritor of that history. That was a huge part of the purpose in creating the state of Israel: to create a place where those who resonate with the universalism of the ger literature could enter into discussion and real action (ie- through governance, military, culture, etc) with those with whom the exceptionalism of Balak resonates and together create a dynamic and living Judaism. We in HDNA also talk about “taking responsibility for the Jewish people.” But are we? I know that many chanichim at Tavor already come from lefty homes. So what responsibility do we have to the others; those who are not already so aligned with us? What responsibility do we have to ourselves to be in dialogue with these people? What responsibility, if any, do we have to our chanichim to show them them stories like Parshat Balak so that they can wrestle with contradicting interpretations and morals in Judaism and build their Jewish identity?